News

Initial Phase of Digital Compilation Complete on the Akie and the Kechika Regional Projects

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada – Tuesday, 7 May, 2013 – Canada Zinc Metals Corp. (TSX Venture Exchange: CZX) is pleased to provide an update on its ongoing digital compilation efforts on both the Akie and Kechika Regional projects.

The Akie property is the Company’s flagship exploration project and is host to the Cardiac Creek SEDEX Zn-Pb-Ag deposit with a 43-101 compliant measured and indicated resource recently updated in April of 2012. The Kechika Regional Project, represented by a series of contiguous property blocks including Pie and Mt. Alcock, extends northwest from the Akie property for approximately 140 kilometres, covering the prospective Devonian Gunsteel Formation shale. The Gunsteel shale is the known host to the Cardiac Creek deposit, the Cirque deposit (Teck/Korea Zinc), and numerous Zn-Pb-Ag mineral prospects and occurrences along its mapped extent. The southernmost boundary of the Kechika Regional project is located approximately 260 kilometers north-northwest of the town of Mackenzie, in northeastern British Columbia, Canada. 

Digital Compilation Program and Database

In November, 2012 the Company initiated a massive digital compilation program incorporating recent and historical geological data gathered from public exploration assessment reports that represent over 35 years of mineral exploration conducted in the Kechika Trough. The compiled information is stored in a structured database format that can be imported into a number of commonly used GIS and mine software programs. The digital information represents both broad and detailed scale data and includes drilling, geological, geochemical and geophysical data.

The initial phase of work is now complete for the Company’s flagship Akie property and key Kechika Regional properties. The historical data has been merged with the Company’s recent exploration data to form a comprehensive digital record unavailable to historical workers. The regional properties from south to north include: Pie, Cirque East, Yuen, Mt. Alcock, Kwad, Weiss, Bear/Spa, Driftpile South, Saint, and Thro. The second phase of the program will incorporate data from properties adjacent to the Company’s claims as well as other data sets including additional assessment reports, government data from both the British Columbia Geological Survey and the Geological Survey of Canada, and historical internal reports obtained by the Company.

Currently, the database exceeds 155 GB in size and includes over 1,250 rock samples, 1,775 silt samples, 24,000 soil samples, and 13,875 meters of drilling, in addition to data from the Akie property.

Exploration and Targeting

Review and detailed assessment has now commenced using the integrated database to effectively assess, interpret, model and ultimately prioritize areas of interest and exploration targets on the company’s properties. 

Historically, the majority of exploration work in the Kechika Trough occurred in the late 1970’s to early 1980’s and was focused primarily on the northern properties, in the immediate vicinity of Teck’s Driftpile deposit. In the southern half of the Trough, the Cirque and Pie properties received the most activity. After a significant lull in exploration, work resumed in the early to mid-1990’s on select properties including Akie and Pie. The recent exploration work conducted by Canada Zinc Metals since 2005 has focused on the Akie property, with lesser work so far on the Pie and Mt. Alcock properties.

Historical exploration in the Kechika Trough focused on selective mineralized surface targets in areas with visibly exposed Gunsteel shale. These sites were generally mapped and sampled on a grid basis with intermittent soil survey coverage completed for several kilometers along strike of a given showing. A limited number of geophysical surveys were completed. Some targets were eventually drilled as a first pass assessment of anomalous soil geochemistry but many targets remain untested. Drilling occurred on the Pie, Yuen, Mt. Alcock, Bear/Spa and Driftpile South properties. Additional drilling was recommended to follow-up on promising drill results, however, in most cases budgets were not available and the work was discontinued. Other properties such as Weiss and Kwad have seen little exploration work despite covering highly prospective ground. These two properties will be scrutinized thoroughly considering their proximity to known Pb-Zn-Ag mineralization on the adjacent Mt. Alcock and Bear/Spa properties.

It is important to note that the number of elements analyzed during the early geochemical surveys was typically limited to just Pb and Zn and occasionally Ag and Ba. More recent sampling programs use a minimum 30 element ICP package allowing data to be captured for all the primary and known pathfinder elements commonly associated with stratiform Pb-Zn-Ag deposits.

A preliminary assessment of each property block is currently underway with an initial focus on the Mt. Alcock, Pie and Akie properties. Using the recent VTEM data integrated with the compiled digital data has revealed several target areas on the Mt. Alcock property, both along strike of the Main Barite showing and on the panel of Gunsteel Formation shales to the east. Similarly, the geological mapping, VTEM data and geochemical sample results are confirming known targets at Pie and Akie, such as the GPS showing, as well as hinting at the possibility of a previously unknown southeastern strike extension to the GPS that is road accessible. New areas of interest have been identified across all three properties. It is expected that as the assessment continues a series of ranked targets will be developed on each property.

Of particular note on the Akie property, historical soil sampling had previously outlined a large zinc anomaly located southeast from the Cardiac Creek deposit; although the target remains largely untested. The geochemistry target is coincident with several EM targets identified in last summer’s VTEM survey giving rise to the possibility of another mineralized system southeast of the Cardiac Creek deposit. This and several other Akie targets continue to be evaluated as targets for more systematic exploration.

Work will continue to synthesize and evaluate the historical data in the context of modern geological and airborne surveys to aid in the definition of new exploration targets. Exploration planning is currently underway for targeted follow-up mapping, sampling and possible drill testing of these targets during the upcoming field season.

Ken MacDonald P.Geo., Vice President of Exploration, is the designated Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and is responsible for the technical information contained in this release.

The TSX Venture Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

CANADA ZINC METALS CORP.

“PEEYUSH VARSHNEY”
                                                           
PEEYUSH VARSHNEY, LL.B
CEO & CHAIRMAN